"Abu Hamza was not convicted for his words," federal prosecutor Edward Kim told the judge. "His crimes truly spanned the globe, from Yemen to Afghanistan to the United States."

The hook-handed imam, blind in one eye and a double-hand amputee was convicted in May of multiple charges, including plotting to kidnap tourists in Yemen in 1998 and build a terrorist training camp in the United States.

He became a tabloid bogeyman in Britain for preaching vitriolic, anti-American sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in London.